The present disclosure relates to device to host interfaces, and more particularly relates to device interfaces with host-type recognition. Devices such as smart cards, Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards, and flash cards first connect to a host and then operate in accordance with an application. The types of hosts to which the devices can be connected continue to increase. For example, a card device may be alternately connected to a mobile phone an MP3 player, a Portable Media Player (PMP), and the like.
As shown in FIG. 1 a conventional interface system 10 includes a host 12 and a device 16. The host 12 includes a host interface 14. The device 16 includes a fixed device interface 18, and a controller 20 connected to the device interface. In operation the device 16 is connected to the host 12. The host 12 and the device 16 communicate with each other via the host interface 14 and the fixed device interface 18. The host interface 14 and the fixed device interface 18 have to have the same interface specification.
It is desirable to connect the device to an increasing variety of types of hosts and still enable to device to operate in accordance with an application. Unfortunately, since the typical host does not support all types of interfaces, the host can only communicate with the specific devices that use the same type of interface as the host. Devices such as smart cards, SIM cards and flash cards can be designed to support a plurality of interfaces. However, if the device cannot match its interface to the host interface, the device cannot communicate with a host having a fixed interface of a different type. The present disclosure addresses these and other issues.